After reading other reviews AFTER I booked the hotel, I was nervous. I hav been in some bad hotel/motels along the Florida coast. Going in, I new it was not the Hilton. It was a beach side motel/hotel. Usually you can expect an older establishment, older/cheap floors, furniture and less than spa resort accomodations.

The beach location was about 4 or 5 miles South of the main pier area of Daytona, so, if you want to be there, this is a far ride. As far as the beach.... EXCELLENT location. Not too many people (on a weekend even) and the dolphins were literally playing in the surf.

We stayed in a corner unit. Very nice, private balcony with a great oceanside views/frontage. The ceiling had been reworked (not well), newer paint (not well), new bathroom (except tub) fixtures, new iron, new ironing board, new window (or so it looks) and a newer TV (well, at least it had AV jacks for your kids Playstations or DVD players). The carpet is older and no good pad, the bed was lumpy (clean sheets though), door to balcony needed work (but worked), front door was old (but worked). The AC was ice cold. We had to turn the unit off. Too cold. It was as all the beachside motel/hotels I have been in South Florida. Not a nasty place, just not 5 stars.

The indoor pool was not working (and why would you want to swim indoors during August anyways?) and is small. Neither hot tub area was working either. Again, not sure I want to get HOTTER in Florida during August. :) The front area had a ceiling leak - pretty serious leak actually, but they were working on it - and several other areas too. The hotels around the area are being worked on from the past Hurricane damages, so stay focused on the beach views. The outdoor pool was working and looked great. Again, I went for the beach, not the pool.

The staff was nice. the service was decent. As written before, the continental breakfast is not really something you need to wake up for. Prepackaged dansish, muffins, OJ and coffee that even McDonald's would have not served (It was not that IT was bad, just no creamer or milk). Of course, Denny's is across the street. Keep that in mind. Go get your free "snack" breakfast, then go get something real to eat.

For the price, the view and the beach is spectacular. If you are not familiar with typical beach side motels and Holiday Inn is more of your style, you may want to pass. IF, however, you know what I mean by Beachside Motel, then this place is every bit as good as you might find in the area.

I was tempted to regret my decision to stay at The Islander due to some other reviews of the hotel. However, I kept my reservation and I am really glad.

No, this is not a four or five star hotel, but it is a very friendly and clean hotel. Our room was to our expectation with a great view of the beach. The staff are above friendly. I have to work with hotel staffs quiet frequently in my job and in the past few months have had an aweful time with service. This is one thing that The Islander definately gets right. We called down and asked for extra pillows on our first night. They arrived within five minutes and were brand new. The front desk staff was always friendly and welcoming when we walked in and were more than helpful on several occasions with directions and suggestions.

The tiki bar was open during our stay with reasonable prices and friendly service. Both pools were clean and easily accessed during our stay. Great access to the beach.

Very family friendly atmosphere. The only thing I would say was disappointing was the "continental" breakfast. It's just pre-packed, still in wrapper muffins and donuts. I was expecting at least cold cereal and maybe fruit. But IHOP and Denny's are within walking distance. The bathrooms are a bit small if you are not comfortable with small spaces, but it's totally workable.

So, I give this hotel a four out of five for our experience.

We really enjoyed our stay, we found the staff to be very helpful. we wanted to change rooms when we got there only for location reasons and they made it happen. I almost canceled my stay because of some of the earlier reviews I read on this website. I am glad I did not. We had an awesome view of the ocean, an excellent pool and spa. The location is down from the main scene which I liked because our part of the beach was not overly crowded. Good restaurants in walking distance. we will be going back to the Islander.

My husband and our 14 yr old daughter and 3 yr old grand daughter book with this resort in advanced for a kitchen w/ocean front view smoking room. Needless to say after our 16 hour drive from Texas via car when we arrived they did not have theroom we requested so it was accept what they had or sleep in the car. Well in the room there were no nothing.. No coffee maker, etc. just a bed. Andjust outside of the door the ice maker was there so all thru the night you could hear different guest getting the ice buckets filled. The bath tub was peeling where they tried to refinish it and the drain was rusted. It was small in the bathroom you could not turn around. I did not know whether to take a bath or go to bed dirty. So I took my chances. After I turned in for the night about 10 minutes I started to get these bites all over my body like there were mosquitos in the bed with me. I jumped up like I was on fire. The bed bugs were awful. I usually take a can of lysol disinfectant w/us to spray the sheets, blankets, and sink and toilet, but forgot. And tey had the nerve to put a used gift bag in the room. It should have lysol and calamine in it. If you like bed bugs this is the place to go. signed.Mrs. Calamine-Cortisone in Texas